Mid-year thoughts

It’s been a really great year so far and incredibly busy (no complaints though!)

VMware products have featured very high on my to-do list so far this year, with new hosting and DR solutions either completed or well underway. The simplicity, resilience and strength of vSphere never gets old!

I have also had the privilege to attend several London VMUG meetings all of which have been excellent! They have been superb opportunities to meet new people, put faces to Twitter names and learn more about current and forthcoming technologies orientated around visualization. If you have not had chance to get to one yet, do try, they are really worthwhile!

Also I was able to attend my very first #vBeers in Bath! (we really need to have another soon)

As a customer of VMware it’s been interesting to see the launch of the Horizon suite (formally Project Octopus) of which Workspace is of great interest. It’s solutions like this that really make sense to me especially with the arrival (like it or not) of BYOD. Other products such as View are also on my to-do list but one thing at a time!

As some of you know I was fortunate enough to win the recent V.I.T Competition so I shall be joining many others at VMworld in Barcelona in October. This will be a first for me and frankly I cannot wait! So expect me to be tweeting like a maniac with pictures of the event and me trying not to look too maniacally happy!

In recent weeks I have been wondering what is next for VMware concerning vSphere, I have heard very little save for rumors and speculation (vSphere 5.5 or 6.0? etc etc) traditionally they announce such things at VMworld so by the end of August we should have a better idea! I am sincerely hoping for significant improvements to the web client.. especially if they stick to their guns about retiring the .NET client.

Next up.. Veeam!

I presently use VeeamOne and Veeam B&R both of which are incredible value for money. I recently sat in on a Veeam B&R v7 presentation (due out in August 2013) and wow.. these guys just keep making it better and I am convinced this is at least in part to their excellent attitude towards customer feedback either directly face-to-face or via their forums. Other vendors need to really take note, as from a customer point of view nothing gets your attention more than seeing your suggestions/queries taken seriously and responded to in a quick and timely fashion.

There is no question my two favorite words this year so far are VMware and Veeam. (some of my colleagues will testify to that with a distinct groan hah!)